Steve Pretty – mining for success

Musicians with multiple jobs are not unusual, though for Steve Pretty, a trumpet player who writes and arranges music, as well as a writer and performer of theatre and comedy, it’s more a case of being spoilt for choice. Last August, his group the Hackney Colliery Band was propelled onto the international stage after playing at the Olympic Closing Ceremony.

The Hackney Colliery Band is going from strength to strength. How did it all begin?

It started back in 2008 when myself and a couple of friends went to see a some gigs by American brass bands. After one of the gigs, we thought it was about time that the UK stepped up, and decided to create a modern brass band of our own. Various musician friends got involved, a gig was booked which meant that music had to be written and rehearsed (there’s nothing like a deadline to kickstart things), and suddenly we found that it had some real momentum behind it. Having had some great airplay around the world and now that we’re increasingly working internationally, I’m pretty proud that our original aim of representing the UK in this new global brass band scene is starting to work out.

How did you get into playing the trumpet – is it ever too late to start?!

I started as most people do, really: with lessons at school. Just as all my peers were getting into rock and dance music, I started getting into jazz. I’ve always loved the spontaneity of great live music, and once I’d realised that learning all my scales would allow me to improvise and be creative, I really started to take it seriously.

It’s a cliché to say it, but it really is never too late to start. I do some private teaching, and the majority of my students are adults. In fact I teach several people who are retired and have never played a musical instrument before, but have always loved the trumpet. It’s not an easy instrument, but I find these guys properly inspirational and they’re probably my most
dedicated students.

The idea of a colliery band is tied to notions of community and locality. Is that true for the HCB too?

Increasingly so actually. I think it’s extremely important that HCB has its own sound that’s more than just an
imitation of American brass bands, and part of the key to that is our diverse repertoire: as well as playing hip-hop, techno and rock covers, a lot of our original material draws very heavily on other influences, especially Balkan music, Afrobeat, UK Drum ‘n Bass, grime and European jazz. We want to reflect some of the amazing diversity of music that goes on in London, and Hackney particularly.

When the band started, the colliery band name was very much tongue-in-cheek, but as we have grown artistically over the years, I have started to consider our place in the tradition of UK brass bands much more. Although we’re not a community band as such, in 2013 we’re developing our outreach programme considerably. I’m running a series of workshops in Norway where I’ll be facilitating Norwegian musicians getting together a similar brass project, and I’m also running a project in collaboration with the Roundhouse and HCB where I’ll be working with young musicians from London to create a kind of youth band in the HCB mould. If any young brass musicians or drummers are reading this and want to get involved, the project is called Roundhouse Brass, and starts this Easter.

I’m really excited about both of these workshop projects, and I actually think that working with young London musicians will reinvigorate my own composing too.

Did playing at the Olympics live up to expectations?

Yes and no, really. It was an amazing thing to be involved in, but it was also quite frustrating and a huge amount of work. Although we were only visible in a few seconds of the coverage of the Closing Ceremony, we were also the official warm up act in the stadium, where we played a 45 minute set, and that was where the majority of the work was really.

We had to work up an entirely new set of British covers, all in the midst of our regular summer gigging schedule, and keep the whole thing completely under wraps. It was strange: I’d be chatting to Kim Gavin and David Arnold on the phone during the day, then going off to play at a festival or whatever and people would say ‘what are you guys up to next week’ and I’d have to pretend that we were playing a private function or something.

It was a pretty unique experience playing a set to 85,000 people, and, no matter how successful the band gets, it’s probably not something we’ll do again in a hurry; let’s face it, a brass band is unlikely to do a stadium tour any time soon… But, oddly, I didn’t get the buzz that you might expect from it. The crowd is so distant that it didn’t quite feel real, and certainly wasn’t the visceral experience that you get from playing to a crowd when they’re up
close.

The next night, I booked us a surprise gig at the Macbeth in Hoxton as a kind of after party. And to be honest, that was about 50 times more fun; it was great for us to be able to let our hair down after a very intense few weeks.

What was the highlight for you?

Having just said that it wasn’t that visceral, when we were announced on the night and the words ‘Hackney Colliery Band’ were still reverberating around the stadium while we were counting the first tune off, it did feel pretty special. When I came up with the name back in 2008, I didn’t exactly expect all these heads of state and international athletes to be aware of it. Though to be honest, they were probably saying ‘Hackney what band?’, which tends to be the reaction of a lot of non-Brits! So it’s always fun explaining what a colliery band is. And where the colliery in Hackney is (under the Dolphin on Mare St, if you’re interested).

How is the band going to top that in 2013? What plans are afoot?

Well to be honest I think this year is going to be the best year yet for the band. Last year was great, but it was dominated by the Olympics so we didn’t record or release that much or tour as much as we’d have liked. This year there’ll be a new album (hopefully in the Spring), at least one new single, lots more UK touring, the Roundhouse project and a lot more international touring too. We’re heading over to Germany in February, and the thing I’m most excited about is a tour of the Balkans in June. I’ve never been over that way, and that region is famous for its incredible brass bands, so I can’t wait to get HCB over there.

Steve Pretty Makes Entertaining Noises is your new night starting in March at the Leicester Square Theatre. What should we expect?

I’ve called the night ‘Entertaining Noises’ because that seems to sum up what I like doing. I never call myself a comedian as such because I don’t really do straight stand-up stuff, so Entertaining Noises seems like a nice catch-all term for noises that come out of my face, my trumpet, some electronic shenanigans, the faces of various guests and maybe the audience too, most of which I hope will be entertaining.

I’ll be doing lots of new music-based material. I don’t really do comedy songs. It’s more comedy about music than musical comedy, if that makes sense. But it’s often extremely silly, too. Previous shows have involved being smashed over the (helmeted) head with tuned sticks in a bit about Edison and synaesthesia, getting the audience to do a live mashup of football chants in a bit about minimalist composers and the invention of the chorus, and me beatboxing through a snorkel and a loop pedal for some reason. And there will be a house band and lots of comedian and musician guests too. I think we’ll all have a big jam at the end of each night. I reckon it’ll be loads of fun.

Steve Pretty Makes Entertaining Noises is a monthly event starting on 12 March at Leicester Square Theatre.
6 Leicester Place
WC2H 7BX
www.stevepretty.com
@stevepretty

For information on the Hackney Colliery Band, visit their website, Facebook page or stay in touch via Twitter.